A painter of figure, florals and people in landscape, Huihan Liu tries to express his sensitivity about people in his impressionist style work.

Born in Guangzhou, China, he showed early art talent, but his city life was abruptly changed with the cultural revolution of Chairman Mao because the government mistrusted educated people. It was decided that Liu's father, a professor at a Christian college, needed to be "re-educated," and the family was shipped to a rural area to learn agricultural skills. However, Liu ran away to his sister's home in Sinjiang, near Russia, and then he returned home, working in a factory but invariably dabbling with paint.

In 1972, he was accepted into the Guangzhou Academy of Fi...